This Is Not A Photo Opportunity

Deerhunter + The Rational Academy @ The Zoo

I will admit to be an occasional Pitchfork reader.  I still hate the layout and the font size is still far too small and the wrong colour, but maybe once a week I’ll remember to go and have a look and read a few reviews.  If the physical act of reading reviews on their site wasn’t as painful as it is I might go there more often.  Despite the fact that Pitchfork’s best songs of the 2000s seems to have countless pop, RnB and hip-hop tracks in it, they really are kidding anyone if they’re trying to cover up the fact that they’re anything other than the bastion of beard-stroking, white-boy indie.  They have an unarguable authority when it comes to championing these bands and the high scores afforded the likes of Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear and Deerhunter have undoubtedly, for better or worse, helped bring these bands to a much wider audience.  But listening to and watching Deerhunter it’s a bit of a mystery as to why they’re lauded so much.  There’s a heavy early 90’s shoegaze influence but it’s so generic and unremarkable that they could easily be one of the lesser band from the Melody Maker-hyped ‘Scene That Celebrates Itself‘ .  Ultimately Deerhunter are nowhere near as good as Pitchfork would let you believe; it’s akin to being told in 1991 that Moose or Revolver were one of the best bands in the world.  The Rational Academy more than hold their own against Deerhunter although, in typical fashion, the majority in attendance aren’t paying much attention to the support band.

By a pure stroke of luck I chose my usual side of The Zoo’s stage and end up right in front of singer/guitarist Bradford Cox, although the light isn’t great and he plays with his eyes shut for the most part. His Marfan’s Syndrome is more than obvious at close quarters, with his extremely gangly frame only emphasised by the jacket he’s wearing. After a few songs I move sides and take some shots through the gap between the speakers behind the front facade of the stage. It’s always been a favourite view at The Zoo as it gives you a good side-on aspect and allows you to play around with background/foreground focus as well as often being the best vantage point to try to photograph the drummers located at the back of the stage. Sadly, this is the last time I get to make use of this angle as the next time I’m here to photograph I find that there’s a new and bigger speaker in place and the gap has virtually gone. There’s still a bit of a gap but it’s not really big enough to photograph across the stage, which is a real shame.

Some more photos on Flickr.

Deerhunter

The Rational Academy

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 10:48 pm. It is filed under Music Photography and tagged with Bradford Cox, Brisbane, Deerhunter, Justin Edwards, Rave Magazine, Sony a700, The Rational Academy, The Zoo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.